Late Thursday night, 50 million Mexicans felt the violent tremors of a magnitude-8.1-earthquake that struck the country’s southern coast, killing at least 61 residents and leveling entire areas in the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas.
At least 200 people are reported injured.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called the earthquake the country’s biggest in at least a century. Buildings shook and collapsed in the capital, some 460 miles away from the quake’s epicenter.
More than 1.8 million people lost electricity, Peña Nieto added, and schools have been closed across 11 states on Friday to allow authorities to check them for safety.
Observen #México#terremotomexicopic.twitter.com/kztsZj83Bc KN #Disidencia
— #Abstencionario 120k (@EnkiVzla) September 8, 2017
The most affected regions — home to poor, predominantly indigenous populations — are already some of the country’s most difficult to reach, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Rescue missions are underway in the remote city of Juchitan de Zaragoza on the coast of Oaxaca state, where at least three people had been buried alive under a collapsed hotel and government building. At least 100 houses collapsed, displacing some 500 people, the city’s mayor, Gloria Sanchez, said in a radio interview.
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“This is the most critical situation in the whole history of the city,” she said.
East of Oaxaca, in the state of Chiapas, seven people died and hospitals lost power, according to an emergency spokesman.
Houses “moved like chewing gum,” one resident told the Associated Press.
Two children in Tabasco were killed, the state’s governor Arturo Nunez announced on Friday. One was killed when a wall collapsed, and the other when a children’s hospital lost electricity, cutting off the ventilator.
The extent of the destruction is still emerging as strong aftershocks continue to rattle the region, the most intense registering a magnitude of 6.1, Peña Nieto said.
In the weeks to come, Peña Nieto will have to deal with public health concerns after hundreds of people have crowded hospitals and streets in search of aid and security. Global Citizen campaigns on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being around the world, the third of the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. You can take action here.
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Political leaders, activists, and celebrities all over the world are sending out their support to victims of the quake.
“My thoughts are with the injured & all those who lost loved ones in last night’s deadly earthquakes in Mexico,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted. “Canada stands ready to help.”
Here are of some of the most devastating images of Mexico’s strongest earthquake in 100 years.
Lo dejaron bien amarrado en 1957 pic.twitter.com/ytl9yZSE51
— Alexis Milo Caraza (@alexismilo) September 8, 2017
#earthquake#Juchitan#Oaxaca
— Kristina Dei 📡 (@2kdei) September 8, 2017
Residents Beg! "PLEASE, WE NEED URGENT HELP". People hurried alive, no aid, no help.pic.twitter.com/1nBdXHUysc
El municipio de #Juchitán en #Oaxaca, de los más afectados tras el fuerte sismo https://t.co/qWDnJZaWZwpic.twitter.com/3NEEovzqvL
— Oaxaca Político (@OaxacaPolitico) September 8, 2017